Start-up company Hyliion’s powered auxiliary axle for road tractors won the 2018 Jim Winsor Memorial Technical Achievement Award, the awards committee – a group of 12 trade press editors – announced at TMC.
Called 6x4HE, the fuel-saving electric drive-axle system was selected from five finalists by a panel of truck writers. The electric axle, when added to a truck or tractor, acts as a hybrid system, capturing braking energy and converting it to electricity, then uses that energy to help launch the vehicle and propel it up hills, explained Thomas Healy, founder and CEO of Hyliion. The 6x4HE, consisting of an axle, a motor-generator, a lithium-ion battery pack and electronic controls, can replace the second axle in a “live” tandem or be added to a 6x2 tandem to effectively turn the truck into a 6x4.
Through advanced GPS and terrain maps, the system’s controllers can determine power or recharge settings to minimize fuel consumption or maximize charging opportunities while driving. Another Hyliion hybrid-electric axle product is made for trailers.
“With all the great innovations in trucking this year, we are honored to have been awarded the Jim Winsor Memorial Technical Achievement Award,” said Healy. “Hyliion is focused on delivering products that are easy to adopt, deliver a significant profit improvement to the trucking industry and improve the environment. The Hyliion 6X4HE is our first.”
The other four finalists were:
• Eaton Cummins Automated Transmission Technologies’ Endurant self-shifting transmission;
• Truck-lite Road Ready trailer monitoring and telematics system;
• Volvo’s LED headlamps, which feature a reverse-flow fan to defrost the lens in winter conditions; and
• XStream TruckWings auto-deploy trailer gap system.